Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The next few days will be busy ones for me, so my posts may be brief and I'll continue to be slow responding to comments. Rest assured that I do read each and every one of your thoughtful comments on my blog, but as you know life has a way of speeding up now and then. As it is, I'll be away on a field trip today, but rest assured I'll tell you all about it later this week. Thanks for reading, and for being such lovely readers, too -- you are all wonderful. (Groovy space age office wear by Pierre Cardin, 1970, via Will Kane)

A gorgeous new book on photography legend Edward Steichen is due to be released tomorrow. Written by William Ewing and Todd Brandow, it's called In High Fashion - The Condé Nast Years, 1923-1937, and focuses on Steichen's 14 years at Vogue and Vanity Fair, where he was known as 'America's court portraitist'. In her review of the book, The Telegraph's Justine Picardie notes that Steichen's portraits " ... reveal themselves as the prototypes for the work of Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz: for they are intended to flatter, rather than reveal imperfection; to encapsulate heroism and intensify iconic status; in other words, to make the rich and famous look like even more gilded versions of themselves." These portraits certainly succeed in doing just that. You can read the rest of Picardie's thoughtful review here, too. From top to bottom: Marlene Dietrich, 1932; Gloria Swanson, 1924; Amelia Earhart, 1931; Martha Graham, 1931.